When the sea closed his eyes
by FromTheFuture
Summary: Because in the end, the Fates always cut the thread. A Percico to scare ghosts away? Viria's cover. Thanks to Stars for the title. /English version of my other fic/Spoilers HoH.


**Disclaimer:** Rick Riordan is the only owner of Percy Jackson series, therefore its characters. But this is fanfiction, I suppose you already knew it.

 **Words:** 899.

 **Author's note:** This fic was originally written in Spanish for a challenge more than a year ago... And yesterday I decided to translate it. It is basically what I thought might have happened in _Blood of Olympus_ , due to a Viria's fanart I found. As I wrote it before the last book came out, it contains little **_House of Hades_ spoilers** , but not many.

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 _ **When the sea closed his eyes**_

 _By FromTheFuture_

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"You idiot... Hold on! I won't let you die at me..."

Nico tried to drag the other half-blood as he could, until the seriousness of his own wounds made him stumble to his feet. He could barely hold Percy, exhausted as he was. Blood stained his friend's T-shirt; he was deadly pale. As a son of Hades, he could see how his life was running out of his lips. His heart was slowing down. As a friend...

"Nico, tell... Tell Annie..." his voice, a hoarse whisper, definitely broke something inside the boy's soul.

"Don't say a word. Don't say a word" Nico pleaded to him.

"Please, I don't have much time". Percy pronounced the sentence slowly, without energy.

"Listen, don't say that" Nico concentrated, trying to hold his friend's soul in his body with every word. "Good news. You're not gonna die. Not because of me". He said, trying not to cry.

"Yeah, sure" Percy forced a smile. "You know that... I would step in Gaea and you again, if you needed it."

"But I didn't need it. I wouln't have minded if I died". Nico felt his eyes burning with rage tears.

"I did what I had to" said Percy weakly.

The other demigod just shaked his head no, sobbing.

"Please tell Annie... And everyone..."

"I'm not gonna tell anything to anyone. It's gonna be you" Nico assured.

"Don't make more diffult than it already is" Percy inspired deeply. Every breath was a little more difficult for him.

"But it wasn't diffuclt! It was so easy! You just had to let Gaea kill me, and then finish the quest, as planned."

"Your death wasn't in my plans, Nico... I simply couldn't let it happen. You would've done the same for me." The demigod could barely talk.

"But that's different." His dark eyes turned even darker. A dark-glowing aura started to form around the son of Hades.

"Why?" Percy started a laugh which finished in a sharp cough. Blood manned from his lips.

Although Nico wan't in much better sahpe (who would after facing The Earth herself?), se managed to accommodate Percy upon his shoulders.

"You've gotta leave me. Leave me and go" the son of Poseidon coughed again, spitting more blood. "You still have a chance to save yourself."

"I'm not going anywhere without you". The demigod got up again, dragging his friend along. Every inch of his body cried in pain, a step after another. "If I could shadow-travel... Or, at least, send an Iris-message..."

He prayed his father to help Percy. He prayed for more time for him, even though deep inside he knew it wouldn't work. It was Percy's hour, and no one, either the dead of the Underworld nor his child, would change that.

The dark aura surrounding him started gleaming intensely, becoming darker, swallowing the two of them. Soon, they were gone.

-...-

The bronze and dark tones of the throne hall casted ill-fated shadows over the worn out demigods. Percy laid on the floor, pale and with his eyes closed; bloody stains all over his face and arms, but mainly on his T-shirt.

Nico was arguing with his father, though he didn't look much better. He, too, looked way too pale and covered in blood, but if you watched carefully, you'd discover few of it was actually his.

"There has to be a way!" The demigod shouted. "I can't let him die. He's just saved me!"

"I wish I could help you, son. Alas, I can". Hades didn't seem really sorry, though. He sounded more like if it weren't dying a boy, but a puppy instead".

"Lord Hades... Father..." Nico contemplated his friend's body. It looked like a corpse. His chest moved each time slowlier. "I know there's to be something you can do. You're lord of the Underworld."

"Look, son" the god said, tireness, sadness and annoyance mixed in his voice; looking at a black watch which had suddenly appeared on his wrist. "I can give you ten mofe minutes." And he dissolved in black smoke after these words.

Nico just stood there, staring at the other demigod without a clue about what to do next. A cold claw oppressed his heart, preventing him reacting.

"Nine minutes" echoed in the great hall.

Nico ran and kneeled next to Percy. He had scant ten minutes to bid farewell.

"Percy..." he started.

He took Nico's hand. His green eyes were like the calm sea: quiet but sad.

"This is the end" he said, grining-

"Yes."

"Tell Annabeth I love her. Tell everybody..."

"You bet I will" Nico simply began to cry. He had been suffering in silence for so long. He had been keeping it in for so long.

"No, please. Don't you cry" Percy took a long pause to catch his breath "you, better than anyone, must know that it doesn't end here. That there's something beyond.

"You want me not to cry? You weren't supposed to die, it was me who Gaea was supposed to kill..." and I love you, he thought, but didn't mention it.

"Stop it. Don't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault. It was my own decission".

"Two minutes" Hade's voice said.

Percy closed his eyes wearily. He would never open them again.

"I love you" Nico confessed, still holding tighly his hand. He'd swore he saw him smile one last time.

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 **Final author's note:** yep. I need your help, please. I'm not sure if what I've written up there is correct or has grammar/spelling/whatever mistakes. Also, I'd really appreciate if you let me know your opinion of the fic in general.


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